The Art of Life Admin: How To Do Less, Do It Better, and Live More

by Elizabeth Emens

This book will give you many hours of your life back.

'Timely and necessary . . . a must-read' Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism

Scheduling doctor's appointments. Planning a party. Buying a present. Filling out paperwork. These are the kind of secretarial and managerial tasks necessary to run a life and a household. Elizabeth Emens was a working mother with two young children, swamped like so many of us, when she realised that 'life admin' was consuming her. Desperate to survive and to help others along the way, she gathered favourite tips and tricks, admin confessions, and the secrets of admin-happy households.

Drawing on her research and writing in a wholly original manner, she shows how admin affects our lives; how we might reduce, redistribute and even prevent it; what 'admin personalities' we might have; and how to deal with it in relationships. The Art of Life Admin teaches us all how to do less of it, and to do it better.

Examples from the book:

1) Find ways to make things end. For instance, try writing No Need to Reply (NNR) on texts and emails. Save others time; they might even return the favour.


2) Start bypassing the to-do list when you face real-time admin requests. Email someone the information she wants while she's still standing there - so it never goes on your to-do list.

3) Spend your Admin Savings Time well. If you save yourself an hour, spend that hour doing something you really want - or need - for yourself.

***

'Reading The Art of Life Admin is like sitting down with a friend who knows exactly how it feels to be drowning in your To Do list, and throws you a very welcome lifeline to help you to make your way out'
Brigid Schulte, author of the New York Times bestseller Overwhelmed

'Every so often you come across a book that really does profoundly change how you see the world. This is just such a book - it will, by force of its own genius, reprogram your life and give you new tools for seeing things as they actually are'
Tim Wu, author of The Attention Merchants

'Emens maps the political, psychological and practical landscape of "admin hell" with humour and hopefulness. This intelligent, witty book will shed new light on everyone's to-do list'
Dr Clare Carlisle Tresch, King's College London

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Productivity, Personal Development, Business, Audiobook, Personal Growth

256 pages, Paperback

Published January 2, 2020

About the author

Elizabeth F. Emens is Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. She earned her law degree at Yale and her Ph.D. at Cambridge. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Zann Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fudging a bit to declare this book as "read." After the first chapter, I skimmed the rest. I wish I had been more careful in looking at the book preview on Amazon, before buying it. The bulk of the book is theoretical, more of a report on what Life Admin is (and isn't), where one falls on the continuum of getting Life Admin done, gender differences and differences in families in the distribution of the work of Life Admin.
Personal stories, both the author's and others', are distributed throughout, but they did not seem to be illustrative of useful solutions. The title led me to believe there would be far more practical information. There is an appendix with some valuable tips, but, for me, this book was not worth the price, nor the time to read closely.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is heavy on the sociology of administrative work and extremely thin when it comes to actionable and practical tips on getting down to the nuts and bolts of handling administrative work. The title overreaches in its execution. The appendix with specific tips may be worth the price of the book alone, but this appeared to be overwritten with a grossly disproportionate chunk of it dealing with what I would call the psychology or sociology of admin work. Little of this helps busy professionals deal with administrivia. Maybe my expectations were off, but I was extremely disappointed by the book and found myself skimming a lot of it, asking like the old Wendy's commercial, "where's the beef?"

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been an enthusiastic (and perhaps secret) reader of "how to" books for as long as I can remember especially when there are annotated lists involved: follow these ten steps to improve your life etc. The subtitle of this book is "How I learned to do less, do better and live more." Who wouldn't want to learn what the author discovered (without doing the extensive research and/or conducting hundreds of interviews) to deal with all those administrative tasks that run parallel to our lives, taking up valuable time and energy?

Emen's focus is making admin more visible, not to heap praise on those who do it well or lay guilt on others, but rather to reflect on admin's effect on our relationships, our work lives, our personal lives, and to allow us to spend our time doing the things that bring us joy. The layers of admin and our response to them is analyzed in the first sections of the book; some of this will be familiar such as Steven Covey's "Urgent vs. Important Matrix" from " 7 Habits." Day to day admin can be daunting for many; certain conditions, however, can bring us all to our knees. "...The strongest contenders for true admin wreckage involves three things: intense pain, uncertainty, and some need for action." Further, the most vulnerable in society have the greatest admin burden: complicated forms, challenging deadlines, little support, limited access to technology. "So much admin of poverty is admin that can wreck you."

We all play different roles (Super Doer, Reluctant Doer, Admin Avoider, and Admin Denier) depending on the audience. Emens offers layers of guidelines and practical strategies to help the reader clarify views/make decisions, helping to share and shift admin, always encouraging readers to be kind, respectful, and supportive, never losing her sense of humor or empathy. "And sometimes, admin non-doing, or doing badly, is the best someone can do on a given day." While strategies such as ASH (Admin Study Hall) or ISH (Intentional Study Hall) might not be a match for you, the concept of collaborative and supportive admin is a good one. While you might already be using some of the ideas from the list of what works for Super Doers, my guess is you'll also find something new.

Emens ends the book with specific ideas and recommendations for the future to ensure technology and personal/business practices acknowledge admin is visible and what it costs us. Finally, while I thought the discussion might have parsed concepts into the ground a few times (Do we need to ask "the admin question" in so many circumstances?) it gave me pause about not trivializing admin in other people's lives and insight into admin's impact on the poor.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that this book exists! For me, this was less about actually learning new methods, and more about a feeling of solidarity. This author “gets” life admin in a way that I didn’t know anyone else might! I can’t believe she wrote an entire book about this, but it’s completely worthwhile to read. I had to read in chunks, and take pauses. It’s a fairly focused topic, so it wasn’t something I could just read through in 1 or 2 sittings. It’s probably a 4.5 star read for me, but I’m rounding up because I think it’s so amazing that the book exists!
Spoiler alert: after that entire book, I saw on the final pages that the author has come around to using the *exact* same (fairly non-fancy) to-do list approach that I do! (We apparently both use the Notes program on our phones, and a paper list for especially big days!)

[Phyllis Searles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit I skimmed the last half of this book too. I agree with comments from other reviews too.

You will either get this book or you won’t. But don’t fall for the bad reviews.

However, I really want to say that she nailed it in the Introduction and first few chapters. The point that resonated with me was the incredible amount of “life admin” that we all do. My situation is clearly unique as I have a disabled spouse, a teenager, and an aging parent. The amount of paperwork I do on a given day is astounding. So, this book validated my feelings and annoyances, that all that I am doing is not made up or created by me. Now obviously, you can say “well, that’s just life.” True, I get that, but then with the overlay of gender, oldest children, oldest daughter, over achiever, this is very real... and the book does a great job
of exploring those themes. I’d recommend it; for those just starting... it can help save you from some of the life admin which will inevitably come your way. Take the best, skip the rest... there is some gold here.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Made it halfway through and then stopped. I was attracted to the title “Life Admin,” which give a name to those mundane personal tasks I never seem to have time for. I thought that this was the exact book I needed. But I was hoping for practical solutions to actually deal with life admin, and instead, the book felt more like an analysis of it. I don’t have any good takeaways or new practices to put into place. I see why the overall rating of this title is low.

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book does not deliver on the subtitle other than with a few anecdotes that are repeated by the author throughout. It is more like an "Eat,Pray,Love" reflection on Emens' own "life admin" tragedies and triumphs. Her story would have been more interesting except for most of the repetitive and boring yet inescapable dwelling on admin topics throughout.

[Noah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete waste of time. At first I couldn’t tell if this was a joke or was serious. Unfortunately the latter... I certainly didn’t clearly consent to having my time wasted like this!!

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good friend and I often commiserate about the endless admin we have to do to keep our households operating smoothly, and now Elizabeth Emens has put the pluses and minuses of the tasks and the doers (or avoiders) into one tidy package, giving it all proper perspective. Well done!
In our supposedly paperless society, I find that I have to deal with more paperwork than ever before! Dr. Emen's book appeared just in time for me. I finished reading this book and thought, Why didn't think to I write it? It was such a good idea to put everything down on paper regarding the myriad of problems of dealing with life-admin. Sadly, while there is no way to start a 12-step Admin Anonymous program, after reading the book, you'll feel better because you'll know that you are not alone and there are strategies to cope.
I especially liked the grid that illustrated the four categories of doers and avoiders. It allows you to place yourself and any others in your household in their rightful spots. This, I think will be helpful in understanding why certain people gravitate to certain admin tasks while avoiding others. It can also be useful for placing blame, if you happen to be in that mood, and what overloaded admin Super Doer hasn't had that cross their mind? On the whole, the purpose of the book is a positive one and it should be read in that spirit.
After contemplating what I had read, I identified two reasons why I don't like life admin much right now. One is that it is necessary to have time - time to think a task through and decide on a course of action, and then time to carry out the plan. The other is interruption: finding time to think about the tasks at hand, and working on them during uninterrupted time are two ways to make my attitude toward doing life admin more positive. Of course, this is usually easier said than done. My new attitude is to look at the tasks and ask, What can I get done in the X minutes that I have available right now? Small victories are motivating.

Life Admin does for the paperwork and tasks associated with running your household, and your life, what Marie Kondo's book does for possessions. The two books compliment each other. Every household needs both. They will help you keep your life under control. In my case, this book kept me from setting fire to my desk.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would do better if it had more new ideas and less examples from the author's life, many of which come across as brags. A few decent take-aways earn it 2 stars. First, that household management and details are just as complicated as paid work's management and details. Thus the definition of "Life Admin". Secondly, that once you take responsibility for a household task, it remains your responsibility and changing that can be very difficult.
Unfortunately there are many wordy examples around these decent truths making it more like reading someone's journal.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Admin, you either love it, hate it, or really hate it. Some of it is important, other elements less so, but ignoring it doesn’t make it go away however much you delay it. These things do have to be done though, you need to book appointments, fill out forms, pay bills, buy gifts and arrange things to make our lives a tiny bit easier

Elizabeth Emens was one of those who was becoming swamped with her life admin, running a busy home with two small children and all the things that that entails, was becoming a bit too much for her. So she started to see if there was an easier way, find the best shortcuts and tips from friends who were the model of efficiency in their own household. She collated them all together and has included them in this book.

There are some interesting things in here, but no more than I have got from other productivity and self-help books. There is quite a lot of her life story in here but seen from the context of the admin she was having to do. She does make some interesting points and comes up with lots of ideas of ways to improve your own admin workload. Hosting an admin party for close friends was one of the dafter suggestions in here though. Sadly, not sure I got that much from this book, I think I will just stick to my current practice of making a list and working my way through it.

[Clifford J · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a marvel. It beautifully blends life-changing conceptual insight with life-altering practical strategies. I understand my life better after reading it, and I have concrete plans on how to tackle previously unseen, unnamed, and underappreciated problems. As one person quoted by the author says, it’s like reading a book about air—but only if air hadn’t been discovered yet. Admin is all around us. It pervades our lives. Understanding that has already changed my marriage, and my professional relationships as well!

[Kimberly W · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was nice to read an analysis of a topic I had only thought of abstractly before. I have always managed to get my paperwork and other tasks completed, but felt bad that I wasn't more organized or timely. This book made me feel better about my to-do list management as well as provided easy tips to better manage life admin with less stress. I also appreciated the discussion of division of labor within relationships (marriage, friendship, etc.) and how to make those divisions work for all parties involved. A fairly quick read with practical benefits.

[Pip Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It's really helped me see all that "extra" work I do (unpaid, of course!) and recognise it for what it is. By default I tend to be a reluctant doer.... but I'm now making more conscious choices about how to handle admin, and so instead of feeling "stuck with it" I'm recognising a wider range of options. It's also helped me appreciate other people who offer to lighten my load, and really see that for the great gift that it is!

[Kenia Sedler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personally, I found nothing new or innovative. I read an article about the author and her concept of "Life Admin". I was intrigued by the idea and excited to have an actual term for all those things on my to-do list that aren't chores or errands. But after reading/skimming the book, I realized that the article had been more than enough (for me, anyway), and that I didn't need an entire book on this concept.

[Denise]

FAVORITE EXCERPTS

Admin is often something we do when we are putting off something more important. One study coined the term pre-crastination--for when we do less important things too soon [or at the wrong time].

One reason illness and disability can be debilitating is that the associated admin takes time away from work and other endeavors. Cybele, a young woman with several disabilities, including cerebral palsy, described to me the laborious process of re-proving her disability to various entities to maintain her benefits, her transportation, her wheelchair, and more. People think impairments like cerebral palsy are limiting, but, Cybele observes, "A lot of it is bureaucracy, not really disability."

Topics that weigh on us, that cause us stress, exact a toll on our minds Research shows that being primed to think about money when money is tight imposes a "bandwidth tax" on other mental activities Simply put, scarcity makes us less smart.

When riding the subway, I sometimes read poetry on my iPhone. I told this to a friend, and now she looks at people differently on the subway. She sees them huddles over their phones and pictures them reading poetry. These days, when I'm annoyed at someone who, transfixed by her phone, lets a door close in my face or walks directly into my path, I imagine she is doing admin. I still don't like doors in my face, and I don't really believe all the offenders are doing admin an more than my friend thinks all the subway riders are reading poetry. But the reframing decreases my impulse to judge, at least a little, which softens me.

. . . the admin of poverty sometimes seems not just incidentally painful, but intentionally so. Humiliation admin, it might be called. Kaitlyn Greenidge writes eloquently of her memories of falling into poverty as a child, after her parents' divorce. "If you have ever had to deal with the bureaucracy of poverty, of having to prove over and over again to those in charge how fundamentally unworthy you are," she writes, "you understand."

Super Doer Erin had the foresight and financial means to hire a nanny to do the admin of childcare, not just the care itself. I want the nanny to remind me of things. Erin recognized the labor or caring-for-kids admin--the thinking and organizing and noticing and keeping track of a zillion details--and was not confused or conflicted about outsourcing that work.

"learned incompetence": within a partnership--Is the one person really incompetent, or have they conveniently let things slide so the other will take over? Conversely, do they really believe the person is incompetent, or are they less reluctant than they admit? Another term for learned incompetence is strategic ball-dropping--if you drop the ball and your partner keeps picking them up, you'll learn to keep dropping them.

Timers and rewards--gimmicky as they may seem--keep me from toiling way past my bedtime, with diminishing returns as I get more and more tired. Late-night admin entails the added risk of making the next day a dim haze of an admin hangover, where all admin looms large and little of it gets done.

Transforming
... as I began a search for a divorce attorney, that this kind of search, amid and related to a painful time of life, feels like a huge waste of time. Yet it is often vitally important, not just for its outcome, but for the experience. ... retell your story to multiple people ... you will certainly hear your own thoughts. Recognizing that the process has benefits doesn't make it easy. But letting go of the sense that we are wasting our time may help reduce the suffering.

Even just asking myself the question of my goals as I walk to the event, reminding myself why I'm doing what I'm doing, seems to ground me and make me more effective.

Remembering, as I sit down to do quarterly tax paperwork for babysitters, how fortunate I am to have the money and luck to employ someone who cares for my children so beautifully has helped me to move through admin I dread with a little grace.

People with means typically do admin that involves private entities, choice and influence over others. People without means mostly do admin that involves public entities, obligations and submission to authorities.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

quiz
https://www.qzzr.com/c/quiz/467549/wh...

author site
https://www.elizabethemens.com/

Super Doer (doing and feeling good)
optimizing
engaging others
making time

Reluctant Doer (doing and feeling bad)
illuminating
minimizing
transforming

Admin Denier (not doing and feeling good)
rebelling
escaping
simplifying

Admin Avoider (not doing and feeling bad)
delaying and deflecting
appreciating
trusting

[Elanor Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating book on the societal and personal impacts of admin. Unfortunately, it very much does not do what it says on the tin. Despite promising to be a guide on "how to do less, do it better, and live more," the book offers virtually nothing in the way of practical advice. Emens does an excellent job exploring the nature and impact of admin, and I'd happily recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic. This book has opened my eyes to just how prevalent (and often unnecessary) admin is in our modern lives, yet I feel no better equipped to deal with it now than I did 200 pages ago.

[Marjorie Elwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Life admin is the "secretarial and managerial work necessary to run a life and a household." It's planning trips, scheduling appointments, paying bills, managing any outsourcing, etc.

Although I found this book a little too academic and more about the concept of life admin, rather than helping us get rid of it, there was a great chapter on what we should require from our companies and government so as not to waste our time on their expectations. For instance: having companies highlight any potentially unfavorable terms in a contract so that we don't have to slog through the entire contract.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This read much more like an academic study than a practical guide for regular people, which makes sense because the author is a professor. Save yourself the time and just read the appendices in the back.

[Audur Inga Runarsdottir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.
Should be taught in schools.
I might make this book an entry-level requirement for anyone I consider dating in the future.

[Amanda Woeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

All men should read this.

[Julie Bestry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few days after finishing, I'm still unsure as to how to review this book, as it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I've been toggling between 3 and 4 stars just because I can't give 3 1/2. There's nothing technically wrong with the book (in terms of writing quality, organization, or language), but what it delivers is both unexpected and slightly odd/lacking.

Based on the blurb on the back, I was expecting Emens' book to be much more of a how-to for people to handle all the paperwork and administrivia (phone calls, decision making) that goes along with adulting. There's actually very little of that, perhaps five pages at the end of the book, plus an occasional "in the wild" tip gleaned from conversations Emens had with a dozen or so interviewees.

She does offer suggestions for an ad hoc approach to what she calls "Admin Study Hall" (coincidentally what I call Grownup Study Hall), where one makes use of body doubling (a concept we professionals borrow from the ADHD community) and Admin Supervisor (having someone act as an accountability partner); however, she seems completely unaware of the wide availability of body doubling opportunities (including for-profit companies like CaveDay and their ilk) or the existence of professional organizers who provide the very productivity coaching she calls out for. (Of which, more later.)

If you take expectations out of the equation, the book is an interesting evaluation of the state of obligatory administrative work in 21st-century life. The biggest flaw I can note is that the book mainly lacks novelty or depth, as if she were doing a Google review or introductory document review of what the experts have written over the last several decades about mental load and emotional labor, and then pared away the content related to chores and childcare and focused solely on admin. The material in the early part of the book isn't wrong, it just lacks depth given how much has been wisely written. Emens is obviously not approaching this part as a journalist nor as a sociologist or psychologist.

The one aspect that is novel is that she's come up with her own rubric (much like Gretchen Rubin's 4 Tendencies) for types of admin "doers" — the super doer, the reluctant doer, the admin avoider, admin denier. Because Emens herself tends to be a hybrid of the reluctant doer and the admin avoider (in other words, the person who isn't keen to be a grownup but isn't outright irresponsible), the focus often falls there.

In general, much of the book reflects the psychological and literal self-reporting of Emens interviewees, mainly in the US, with a small Scottish contingent. She pulls from straight, gay, and polyamorous couples' self-reportage and yields research reflecting what we've seen before, that straight men carry less of the mental load. She does delve more deeply into a variety of other reasons that lead one member of a couple (or, sometimes, throuple?) to being forced to handle unwanted admin, such as personal inclination, history (who opened an account or was available to deal with an issue when it first arose), sociological underpinnings (how other parents automatically contact one parent vs. the other), etc.

The book had three central focuses: 1) why admin gets "assigned" as it does, 2) how to deal with it, and 3), what society should be doing about it.

The first, she handle's fairly admirably but again, without adding much of her own insights; it's what we've heard before, without a lot of added nuance.

The second was where I was most disappointed; as a professional organizer, I expected the book to teach people how to make it easier to do admin. Failing that, I expected her to point people to any of the many, many resources that could get them the essential skills and support they need.

Rather, she mostly seemed to want to share how to avoid having it fall on you in the first place. It was as if it were a book on how to eat healthily and instead of explaining nutrition, giving guidance on purchasing food, and detailing how to cook it, it suggested ways to get people to invite you over to dinner at their homes. Perhaps because I believe that avoidance (and even reluctance) to do life's admin is something one should try to grow out of (as one should learn to advance beyond the childish habit of not wanting to brush one's teeth), I was underwhelmed by that aspect of the book.

The third focus of the book seemed to have the most potential, but I found it to be hit-or-miss. After discussing solutions for handling admin in a relationship — mostly, figuring out beforehand if a person is a good match for you in this area, and coming up with good personal approaches to becoming better at admin (without actually providing instructive tips), she has a chapter on "collective possibilities." I suspect expanding an entire book concept on this might have been more useful and within her wheelhouse as an attorney.

Basically, Emens is calling out for societal changes at the governmental and corporate levels to make admin easier. Some things are patently fantastical, not merely in a capitalist society but in modern society altogether, like making companies pay us for the value of the time we waste dealing with their stupid mistakes (or related admin), or instituting an overarching rating system for how institutions (schools, government agencies, companies) use our time.

She'd like a society in which we had a right not to read the fine print, with essential information in boxes (like the Schumer boxes on credit card offers) so we need not read anything else. In capitalist societies, corporate lawyers and lobbyists would never stand for that! Similarly, no, the insurance industry will never be held financially accountable for the way our time is wasted filling out forms and standing in line because, as she at least realizes, that's the point. Just as with certain politicians and the cruelty being the point, Emens understands (but longs for a system otherwise existing) that insurance company profits are based on trying to wear us down to make us go away so they need not pay out at all.

Others of her ideas, still pie-in-the-sky, at least feel less ridiculous, like having all level of government seek ways to reduce admin. That would probably yield reducing government's size, as well, and no nation (well-intentioned or otherwise, well-run or otherwise) is likely to do that. And as much as we may agree with Emens' wish that tax returns be more in line with what is done in other nations (dramatically reducing our efforts, since the government generally already knows what we've earned and is just testing our honesty and exasperate-ability), the for-profit tax admin companies like TurboTax have purchased/bribed too many senators and representatives for it to ever be anything but what it is.

Two of her ideas particularly stuck out to me. First, that schools would teach admin. I'm all for that, and it's absolutely possible. I know that because my public schools taught me admin. We learned how to balance checkbooks, fill out insurance forms, make business telephone calls, and create file structures. (They did not teach us how to scan, as she bemoans, but scanners did not yet exist.) Perhaps that's why I (eventually) became a professional organizer. However, given the nature politics plays in education, I'm not particularly hopeful that her wish will come to fruition.

Finally, I'm flummoxed at her "wishlist" including "Admin consultants would help us solve our admin problems and develop tailored systems for dealing with it all." Ms. Emens, I'm right here! Hiya! She's aware that there are professional organizers who deal with tangible clutter but seems entirely unaware that productivity consultants who offer "both tailored and off-the-rack solutions" for admin exist. But we do it every day. Perhaps she needs to visit with the NAPO-NY chapter, as my National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals members in her home city would be glad to clarify what we offer.

The book is not bad; it just doesn't seem to know what it's supposed to be, or at least what readers are seeking. For readers seeking solutions, there are many better books. For readers seeking an understanding of the admin element of mental load, this offers a nice overview, but nothing new or deep. For readers seeking a philosophical and public policy approach to how society could (but won't) make overall changes to lead the charge for admin reduction and admin support, this is a nifty place to start, as long as readers understand that much of these changes are pie-in-the-sky, at least in America, at least for now.

Emens is smart. She graduated from Columbia, Yale, and Oxford, and she's an attorney. She wrote this book while going through a divorce from her wife and handling (she admits, badly) the admin for the divorce and her children. So, perhaps we need not fault her for not having done deeper research, or having been more practical. But must we reward her?

Emens is neither a journalist nor a productivity expert nor a public policy think tank employee; each of the three approaches in the book paired with each of these types of experts, might have yielded a more useful book. Instead, one gets the sense she sought to write the book that she, herself, needed to deal better intellectually and emotionally with the frustration of the weighty admin related to her divorce. Thus, she's written a book that will be at least vaguely interesting to other people who neither have any expertise in the psychosocial and socioeconomic issues of admin, the practical necessities of admin, or the sociological opportunities to change admin.

I'm not sure whom this book will help. It was pleasant, well-written in terms of technical skill, and occasionally intriguing, but might have been better suited for a series of roundtable discussions. It doesn't seem that Emens is intending to make a new career in this field, so hopefully she got what she needed out of writing it.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is well written but except the perfectly fitting term of Life Admin I'm not at all sure what does one have to gain from somewhat academic book about that.

Although I have noticed feeling better about completing annoying admin task, so it was worth while.

[Humaira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting tips on how to deal with life admin but at times more concerned about her divorce than actual useful tips. Found out i am a reluctant doer rather than a super doer which makes sense.

[Izabela Korwel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I reached for "Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Live More" by Elizabeth F. Emens not really knowing what to expect. After all, each one of us has some subconscious idea what admin is, but it can be sometimes difficult to define. For me, it is running errands, paying bills, getting things done. Crossing off items from the to-do list. Busy work, really, when you get to the bottom of it. That's essentially what the book is about - figuring out how to manage your life admin in more efficient way.

In the beginning, I was not even sure I will be able to get through the book. It starts almost like a dissertation in sociology. I was close to giving up, bored and irritated by all the thoughts on ‘gender roles’ and stuff like that. Luckily, if you last long enough, practical advice, tips, and real people stories will follow. The pages are filled with great advice about the division of work within the household, brilliant ideas like creating and participating in admin support or sharing groups, and even more obvious suggestions as to which shared apps to consider. Discussions on when you need (or not need) to use of personal assistants, cleaning help and babysitters can also be found.

One of my favorite chapters was an in-depth analysis of how different people approach their life admin. All people, according to the author, can be divided into four groups, each one handling their admin differently. It was really interesting to read what types of strategies each group employs to deal with their life admin, and you can actually learn a lot to help you just by studying other types of personalities.

The last chapter is a bit out there. It is "imagine life" type of things. They do their job in making you think and dream of what could be done differently in the world to make life admin less of a burden. It's a combination of imagined and real-life stories about how the outside forces (government, companies etc.) could operate in a way that would simplify the admin they imposing on people.

I would suggest "Life Admin" to anybody struggling to keep up with their life admin, is it for a first time in your life having to handle it alone, or just hoping to keep on top of all the things you need to take care, once and for all.

[Caleb Liu · Rating 2 out of 5]

We’ve all at some point or another been faced with mundane administrative tasks that feel frustrating and overwhelming, the value of this book lies in helping us acknowledge just how much admin is a “thing”.

Sadly, it’s unlikely to satisfy many readers: those looking for practical tips to help them deal with admin will find advice rather sketchy and can skip right to the annex. Those wanting a deeper examination of how admin affects our lives and society won’t find adequate depth.

That’s not to say that the author doesn’t raise some potentially interesting points. She shows that admin often constitutes extra work above and beyond doing the thing itself, it’s often gendered (woman are far likely to do more), and admin tasks are often taken on due to chance or even learned helplessness from the party. Far less surprising is that there are four distinct personalities in how people respond to admin.

What I wished for was a deeper examination of some issues. For example, the impact of admin in sapping our attention and impeding our capacity to achieve larger goals: will keeping a to-do list potentially make this worse by making us feel more paralyzed? Why is admin so gendered - and how was that reflected or undermined in the author’s own marriage (with her wife).

One fascinating idea is how admin is used as a weapon e.g. insurance claims perhaps setting a bar for a willingness to act - this deserved to be examined in a far deeper way than the cursory glance it was given.

Overall, it’s a fascinating topic and my rating reflects potential undelivered rather than a particularly harsh reaction to the book itself. But the author suggests she was going through multiple admin crises during its writing, so we ought to be grateful that it exists.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this book 3.5 stars. Life admin are the chores that are a hassle to do, like finding a school for a child, filing an insurance claim, renewing a license, canceling a membership, and disputing a charge. The thought of life admin fills many people with dread. There are avoiders, those who put off life admin as long as possible. There are deniers, those who think life admin are dumb and shouldn't be done. This book is mostly about the different types of life admin, how the work is distributed (usually more for the woman), and how life admin creeps in (one spouse took over when the other spouse was doing it wrong or kept forgetting to do it). There are some good ideas for handling life admin, such as one mother who texted a group of mothers the time when she and her child were going to the park instead of trying to coordinate a play date each and every time. Another idea is to set a date for life admin tasks (like paying the bills) and schedule a video call with a friend so you two can do those tasks and chat at the same time. Or try to eliminate life admin entirely, like setting up auto payments, paying someone else to do them, and considering how purchasing things might add admin work (is it assembled or not? does it come with batteries?).

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this book 5 stars just for validating my sense that life admin is one of those invisible destroyers that have to be brought out into the light so we can make conscious efforts to cope. Like many of us, I struggled with the work version of this issue for years: It's hard to quantify the time (and the toll) this takes, and those in charge are only interested in what they can quantify. But this book is about the same issue in the rest of our lives, and that is huge, in my opinion.

The sad part is that the author admits that she was driven to write this book by the overwhelming burden of life admin related to her divorce. Her pain is our benefit, as she seeks to help us all avoid the disastrous effects of not paying attention to life admin issues. Thank you, Professor Emens!!!!

There's a lot of good stuff here, so I urge you to read the book. if you don't have time or patience to read the whole book, she's put a lot of in the appendices to make them easy to find and try.

[Alice Chau-Ginguene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book not only opens my eyes but also has helpfully given me the name of what the ‘thing’ that is giving me stress - Life Admin.
If you have ever wondering why you are running around and feel you never seem to finish anything, then read this book.
Do not listen to the review that said the author didn’t give practical suggestions, those people did not read the appendix!! The author tried to save everyone’s time and made a list at the very end of the book but it looks like a lot of people didn’t read it.

[Nela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not entirely a how-to book, and I didn't expect it to be so that's totally fine. Well structured, with lots of examples and stories, as well as some strategies and a quiz at the end, I consider it time well spent. It highlights the importance of asking "the admin question" when making decisions, ie. what is the administrative footprint of a certain choice, and is there a different possibility that would incur less admin? Sure that sounds like something one could learn from a blog post, but have you?